Taste of Death

Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.

Today I allowed my charge to come to harm, abandoned my god, and found myself trapped by conflicting oaths. I have undertaken a new Quest, and set about to do more Good in this world, but I fear that the best I can hope for is to prevent things from becoming even worse than they already are.

We awoke this morning to the sound of dogs, still pursuing us from our escape after the Trial by Grossly Unfair Combat. Mistress Ren was able to spy a shortcut through the woods, and Steve went behind us to confuse the trail. There he must have come across an old sounding-horn, but I did not notice it when he returned, because I am a foolish knight who does not pay enough attention to his surroundings.

We made our way to a high point, to reconnoiter, and found a small group waiting there; an old man in wizard’s robes, two men-at-arms, and an archer with an unkind look to him. They seemed willing enough to let us on our way until they spied Steve’s horn, and then they bartered for it. As my companion handed it over I recalled myself and sought out their Ill Intent, only to realize too late that the wizard practiced the dark arts. If I had thought sooner all of this might have been prevented, but instead a skirmish broke out. I dove to Mistress Ren’s protection and Steve quickly bulled through the guards, but not before the sorcerer had begun a foul ritual. Steve and I quickly dispatched him, and I debated whether to destroy the horn, but hesitated. In this one case my hesitation proved fortuitous, for Mistress Ren quickly realized that the horn was necessary to reverse the ritual. She began her preparations but not before a great door opened in the sky and a strange eight-legged dog forced its way out. Steve busied himself with this strange beast while I moved to protect Mistress Ren, but our earlier delays had cost us dearly, and a group of faerie-knights, clad in crystalline armor, rode forth from the portal. In my haste and ignorance I had allowed the Wild Hunt to be unleashed.

Still more fae hounds poured forth, surrounding Steve, and I threw myself into combat against the knights only to immediately realize that I was hopelessly outmatched. They were mounted while I was afoot; they bore enchanted arms when I did not; and they outnumbered me five to one. As I flailed against them, my holy symbol shattered; though whether from my opponent’s efficacy or my own lack of devotion to Kane I know not. The situation was hopeless and so I seized at the only hope I could see: I surrendered and threw myself at the mercy of their commander, hoping to spare the lives of my companions.

But Queen Heela had a different outcome in mind, it seems. She spared my life but bound me in servitude to her, commanding me to retake the horn from Mistress Ren. Fortunately Steve shook off enough of the faerie-hounds to oppose me, and we grappled for a time while Mistress Ren finished her ritual. Ren is clever, far cleverer than I, and she seized on an opportunity to twist the circumstances to her advantage. She crept to the black wizard’s corpse and stole from it an object of some power, which she used to rework the ritual, binding the Wild Hunt to her service. Queen Heela cried out in dismay and attempted to take her own life, rather than owe fealty to another, but she was prevented and struck unconscious.

It was at this time that our pursuers from town caught up with us, and wisely let us be.
And so it stands. Heela is bound to Mistress Ren; and her knights (including me) are sworn to obey. A dryad has come to us, seeking aid; it seems that some demons have possessed the trees of her companions, and in doing so driven the other dryads to their mad will. We ride out now, three mortals and five faerie, to oppose them, but I do not know how long our band can keep without turning on itself. Perhaps we will be able to continue our quest to slay the seven sinful dragons, and keep Heela’s attention diverted, but I fear for what will happen when all this is done.

In Medias Res

The group started out tumbling into an excavation in a wooden cage. Steve, you see, killed a would be rapist and, in a hilarious mixup, ended up getting everyone sentenced to Trial By Grossly Unfair Combat. Whoops.

The excavation was a ruined temple to a dead god that the authorities had stocked with goblins. Around the sides of the pit, a crowd was cheering on . . . well, neither side in particular. Violence. They were cheering on violence.

Steve busted the gate open and ably started swatting goblin heads off of goblin necks. Tosaka jumped into the fight with a Magic Missile volley, but the floor of the temple, concealed under the dirt, was rotten and gave way. Happily, Cassius had been keeping an eye on her and lept out, knocking her to safety and falling into the temple catacombs himself. It was dark, but he spotted stairs going back up. He also heard growling.

Dude wasn’t alone in there for long. DRUID had turned into a wolf and tackled a goblin right down into the pit, killing the thing. Tosaka went down a bit less gracefully in an effort to dodge a goblin’s arrow, she got tangled up in the old beams that were jutting out around the hole to the catacombs. Poor wizard had to leave her spellbook behind when she dropped down. And that’s not even as bad as it gets for her. She did bust out a light spell, revealing the pack of growling ghouls. They were NOT fans of the light.

Steve took out a few more goblins before following them down, landing smack on top of one of the ghouls as Cassius commanded them to be gone. They refused, but it gave him an edge in fighting them. DRUID made for the stairs, but the trap door was blocked and covered in dirt. Not the kind of thing you can open while you are a wolf. Compounding his problems, a ghoul got in behind him and cut him off from the others.

Again with the protecting, Cassius stabbed the living shit out of the ghoul. It went crazy on him too, though, clawing through his armor and making a sick mess out of his sword arm’s tendons. Simultaneously, Steve brought his hammer down on a ghoul’s back, snapping it in half. That didn’t stop the ghoul from munching on his ankle, though.

Tosaka kept trading shots with the goblins around the hole, eventually deciding to make a deal with them over Steve and the guard’s shouted objections. They’d team up against the guards that threw them both in here, but the goblins would get Tosaka’s spell book as a hostage until it was all over.

The city guard descended into the pit to cut this business short. You can’t have both sides of a death sport sign a peace treaty. That totally defeats the purpose. Tosaka couldn’t contribute too much to the fight, though, because she spotted her sister’s dismembered hand in the ghoul corpse pile. So she was mostly screaming for a little bit there.

DRUID turned into a bear and started bear mauling the guards who, in turn, were just kicking Steve’s ass. Dude was not getting a break. He eventually rallied, though. As did Tosaka.

Having defeated the guards watching over them, Tosaka attempted to summon the spirit of her sister. Surprisingly, there was no answer. Cassius did some poking around, and found an ancient holy symbol. Presumably, it was to whatever god they used to worship in the temple. Having caught their breath, the party go Tosaka’s spell book back and split for the woods.

A blog for your campaign

While the wiki is great for organizing your campaign world, it’s not the best way to chronicle your adventures. For that purpose, you need a blog!

The Adventure Log will allow you to chronologically order the happenings of your campaign. It serves as the record of what has passed. After each gaming session, come to the Adventure Log and write up what happened. In time, it will grow into a great story!

Best of all, each Adventure Log post is also a wiki page! You can link back and forth with your wiki, characters, and so forth as you wish.

One final tip: Before you jump in and try to write up the entire history for your campaign, take a deep breath. Rather than spending days writing and getting exhausted, I would suggest writing a quick “Story So Far” with only a summary. Then, get back to gaming! Grow your Adventure Log over time, rather than all at once.